Paddy's Channel at Woy Woy/Gosford

[Wassa]

G'day guys,

I am heading up to Gosford this weekend for the first time this season.

Have the bream, whiting and flathead arrived as yet? If they aren't in Paddy's does anyone know if they are down the Hawkesbury end of Brisbane Water? I have a boat so chasing them isn't a problem.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Yours in fishing.

Wassa

[Cremated_Reddog]

Hiya wassa, mate this lot are all from north of the border and I aint up to date with what's happening down that way, there seems to be only a couple of us from south of tweedheads so we have to work it out for ourselves....



Reddog

[yellowbeard]

It's funny about Paddy's Channel. Going right back to the 50s Paddy's was the buzz word for Woy Woy folk ( if Woy Woy is Aboriginal for deep water, which word means 'deep' and which word means 'water' -- apologies to former Woy Woy resident and genius, Spike Milligan). But Paddy's was also a bit of a joke because people who didn't want to reveal their real fishing hot-spots simply said that they made their catch in Paddy's Channel -- many confessed to this over the years. This of coours gave it an over-rated name. I've never been particularly successful there, but that doesn't mean anything. But one spot that has regularly returned fish for us over the past 20 years is further up towards Ettalong at Booker Bay, just outside Hardy's Bay. There's a Yellow cardinal mark, which we always called a turning post, as it is where you turn around to enter and leave Hardys Bay. If you pull back a few metres (enough to clear traffic) from that post you'll usually find good size bream there in the shallows . It's imperative to use very light line there, about 2 - 4 kilos, a light running sinker about 1M from a 1.0 or 2.0 suicide hook (I love the dearer salt water version). It's also a crab spot, and big flathead cruise past, but it's not the best flathead spot in the bay. You can also pull back even further along the sandbank (towards Woy Woy) for bream.